At the Bowling Alley
by GakuenAlicefan27
Summary: "Well, it was pretty amazing — what you did with the sign." Call said, changing the topic. Aaron decided to let it drop, at least for now. He and Tamara exchanged a glance. Aaron guessed they were thinking the same thing: Yeah…that could've gone better…but hey, it could have gone a lot worse.


A/N: Hi, guys! A tumblr friend, thefuriousmoles, asked me if I could write the bowling alley scene from Aaron's point of view, and I thought that it should be interesting. I worked really hard on this fic, and it is my longest Magisterium one yet; I'm very, very happy with how it turned out.

I also published this fic on AO3 (username: MidnightHalo27)

There are spoilers for those who haven't finished The Iron Trial.

Disclaimer: The Magisterium book series belongs to Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, not me.

I hope you like it! Reviews, kudos, etc are awesome! Constructive criticism is very welcome, but flames will be used to roast marshmallows.

* * *

 **At the Bowling Alley**

 _by: GakuenAlicefan27_

Aaron's desperation seemed to mingle with the pain.

His body was scratched all over, his wrists were bleeding, his head was starting to throb from being upside down for too long, his ankle was aching from being manacled and pulled to lift all of his weight, and he was sure that he was one moment away from throwing up.

But none of it compared to the pain of having physical contact with a chaos-elemental.

When the creature lifted its tentacle, it barely brushed Aaron's skin, but it was enough for him to know that there couldn't be any pain in the world possibly worse than that.

It was an icy, numbing pain; intense and destructive, though, when he looked at the patch of skin, it didn't seem any different from how it was before. He wondered if it was something that destroyed you from the inside – If the bodies of the people who died by chaos elementals looked normal, untelling of the horror they had suffered while dying.

Drew kept on taunting him, all traces of the boy Aaron had known from the Magisterium were gone. That Drew had been friendly, a little too obsessed with ponies, a little naïve and a little jumpy; a lie carefully constructed for the sake of infiltrating the mage's ranks and spying for the Enemy of Death. And the lie had been successful.

But there was no need for it anymore, and Aaron was getting to see the real Drew: A boy very talented in magic, but also a great sadist who wholeheartedly believed in the Enemy's preaching and apparently also believed that Aaron thought himself better than others.

As if he had asked to be a Makar.

He had tried talking to him, but he wouldn't listen. His only interest seemed to be feeding Aaron to the shadowy monster in the glass container.

Why was he like that? Aaron didn't know. He didn't know how Drew had started working for the Enemy, nor why the Enemy had chosen to use a twelve-year-old as his spy, but really, it didn't matter now. He had given up trying to understand; it wouldn't help him anyway.

The throbbing in his head was getting worse; black spots were beginning to dance in his vision. Below him, the chaos elemental was watching with its orange eye, waiting for the moment when Drew would lower Aaron fully within its reach.

This was the end, wasn't it?

Just as that thought crossed his mind, there was the loud bang of the door to the room being flung, and the unmistakable sound of Call's voice greeting Drew.

"Hey, Drew," He said, grinning. "This sure doesn't look like pony school to me."

Aaron didn't have time to dwell on his surprise though, 'cause the shock of Call's entrance made Drew jerk back so hard that he ended up yanking him several feet up.

The pain exploded with full-force, making him yell out in pain; still, he was able to see Tamara swiftly climbing the far wall while Drew was looking Call's way.

The sudden turn of events had his mind buzzing. A part of him wanted to rejoice in the fact that his friends had come for him, but another wanted to tell them to run and save themselves. They didn't know what they were up to; Drew was better trained than them and there was a chaos-elemental in the room, not to talk about all the chaos-ridden in the building.

He didn't say anything though. Speaking could divert Drew's attention and have him see Tamara and then it all would have been in vain.

As much as he hated it, he had to let Call keep on distracting the other boy; at least he had Miri and Havoc with him, and Drew hadn't made a move to attack yet.

Unfortunately, this wasn't reassuring enough to ease his nerves.

He listened on as the boys talked to each other, heart drumming in his ears. Once more, Drew jerked on the chain holding Aaron, and a burst of pain shot up his ankle; he couldn't help making a noise, but Drew thankfully didn't look at him, too absorbed in his conversation with Call.

It took a few more seconds for Tamara to reach him, and when she did, she pulled him over the rafter, broke it at the end with magic, and started working on undoing the chain around his ankle. She seemed focused and steady, which was good considering that Aaron was nearly shaking.

Not long after, Drew's shout of "No!" was heard, and Aaron knew that he had realized what was happening. He looked down, instantly fearing for Call and Havoc, who were on the ground while Aaron and Tamara were safely out of reach from Drew's rage.

Tamara quickly finished her work with the chains, and Aaron watched in horror as Call tried to step away from Drew, only for the other to press his hand to the glass container and shatter it in what seemed like a hundred or more shards.

Both he and Tamara yelled as the shards showered Call and Havoc, then yelled even louder as the chaos elemental made his way to their friends.

The elemental was much more horrible out of the glass container; it had many faces and mouths, and each of its numerous arms were different from the other, as if it couldn't decide which form was the scariest. It surged up in front of Call, who couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

The fight got ugly fast. Call unsheathed Miri and blindly charged at the elemental, struggling to keep the thing from touching him. He managed to sink the blade into the creature, but the wound inflicted only managed to make it angrier. One of its arms grazed Call's shoulder, and Aaron knew how that hurt.

Miri dropped from Call's hand, but he wasn't able to reach it in time. Aaron's desperation reached new levels when he saw the elemental lunge at an unarmed Call.

He closed his eyes, unable to look. A howl filled the room, and he reopened them in time to see Havoc throwing himself at the creature to protect Call. He diverted his attention for a moment, when Tamara undid the last of the chains, and when he looked again Call had recuperated Miri and stabbed the elemental on the side.

Havoc ended up being hurled across the room. Aaron waited with baited breath to see if the wolf pup would get up.

He didn't.

"Havoc!" Call shouted, darting towards him.

But the elemental wasn't finished yet. It growled at Call, advancing on him.

Call suddenly stopped, whirling around and facing the creature. His grey eyes were stormy with fury. There was something in them that had Aaron shivering involuntarily.

Call stalked forward, Miri firmly in hand, but the elemental didn't seem like it wanted to fight anymore. Instead, it shrank back, which prompted Drew to kick it and order it to attack.

It attacked.

Not Call, though.

All three of them watched frozen in place as the elemental rolled over Drew. The boy tried to escape, but it was in vain; he was doomed.

Tamara got on her knees and yelled for Call to get out of there, but he couldn't. He'd have to pass by the elemental to get to the door.

"Go that way!" Tamara said, pointing to the door behind Call. "Look for anything – a window, anything. We'll meet you outside."

Call nodded. He went to Havoc, lifting him up. Tamara and Aaron began hurrying down the rafters; Aaron winced at the soreness that was enveloping his entire body, but he didn't slow down.

Tamara reached the ground first, Aaron following close behind. Call yelled, and both of them looked to see the elemental forget about Drew's, now lifeless, body and start to move towards Call.

Havoc, who was thankfully alive, leaped to the ground and ran towards the doors, Call right behind him. Aaron wondered if his leg was hurting too much; it must have been, with all the strain he was putting on it. The elemental followed them out of the room, and everything was silent.

Aaron had never felt more useless in his entire life.

He had been kidnapped, chained and hung from the ceiling by someone he'd thought a friend; his wrists and ankles were hurting as if they were on fire, and he'd nearly become the dinner of a chaos elemental. Now, said chaos elemental had just gone out the door while after Call and Havoc and there had been absolutely nothing that Aaron could do. What was the use of being a makar if his friends had to put their lives in danger to save his?

Tamara's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Aaron, come on! We need to go!" She said, already halfway to the door.

Aaron followed her, pausing only once, right before exiting the room, to quickly glance at Drew's body. The skin was already turning blue.

And to think that not even an hour ago he had wondered if someone dead by an elemental looked like a normal corpse.

Now he knew.

He shook his head, willing the thoughts away. He didn't have time to waste. He and Tamara had to find a way out of this hellish place and call for help. They might be Call and Havoc's only chance.

He caught up to Tamara. They advanced through the corridor, quickly, but quietly, hoping against hope that no chaos-ridden would notice them.

By some miracle, they found a window a few minutes after and slipped through it. They crouched down on the ground outside, talking in whispers so they wouldn't be heard.

"What do we do now?" Aaron asked. He couldn't think of anything that would help.

"I have a plan." Tamara said. Her face looked calm, but her hands were trembling. "I thought about it when Call and I arrived, in case it was needed." She pointed at the bowling alley sign in front of the building. "It's high enough. If we could reach the top, we would be able to signal the Magisterium."

"But how are going to reach the top?" He asked, eyeing the huge structure.

"Earth magic. We could use it to bend the sign and lower it enough so we could jump onto it."

Aaron gulped. They had covered a good amount of Earth magic in the past months, but never had they tried anything even close to this.

He nodded anyway. It could work, if they put enough concentration on it. They could do it; they had to do it.

They checked around the area to make sure nobody was watching, then ran to the sign. Once there, Tamara looked at him, silently saying that she was ready to begin. Aaron nodded back.

Together, they focused on the structure. Aaron imagined its components, the earth magic running through them, binding the cables in another arrangement, molding the metal into a new shape.

Soon, the upper part started moving, then the support. It lowered down slowly, and Aaron made sure to be extra cautious as it came near them. Altering it too much could break it, going too fast could make the top hit them, and he really didn't want to become a pancake.

Finally, it reached a height they could jump to. Tamara made sure to hold both sides tightly once both of them were on it. Aaron did the same; his wrists were hurting, but he knew that not holding on tight enough would result in a nasty fall once the sign was back in place.

He sighed. That had been the easiest part. Now they had to put it back to how it was before, and molding something back to its original arrangement was always more difficult than changing its shape.

He looked at Tamara; her calm face was beginning to change into one of apprehension.

"Ready?" He asked. She nodded.

Aaron inverted his thought process, imagining how the bowling sign looked on its full height, the cables reorganizing. The support started moving back up, reaching a considerable height before making weird popping sounds.

Oh-oh.

There was just no way this could be good.

Just as he thought it, there was a series of mini-explosions around the part where the support connected with the top, startling them enough for both to lose control of the magic.

The sign fell.

In the building's direction.

Double Oh-oh.

"We're going to crash!" He yelled.

"Don't let go of the top!" Tamara yelled back.

They plunged through the roof, which gave away instantly, pouring down concrete and wood, and raising a cloud of dust.

Aaron groaned and coughed; his body was hurting in some new places but at least he was still in one piece. How many near-death experiences could a person have in one single day?

No, wait. He didn't want to know.

He heard Tamara speak just when he was opening his mouth to ask her if she were okay.

"Call?" She asked.

He looked in the direction she was looking at. Now that the dust was starting to settle, he was able to see Call and Havoc not too far away from where they were. Call had apparently fallen from the impact, but he didn't look hurt; Havoc was beside him, visibly panicked, but seemingly okay too.

Oh, thank God!

It took Aaron half a second to spring off the sign and run to them, bending down and grabbing Call by his arm.

"Call, come on!" He said.

Call looked a little lost, as if his mind was still computing what was going on, but he let Aaron haul him to his feet. Havoc whined, planting his front paws on Aaron's waist.

Tamara yelled, pointing at something behind them. Aaron felt his heart thump when he looked and saw an army of chaos-ridden marching over to them.

"Come on!" He yelled again, sprinting towards the sign, jumping onto it and reaching for Call.

Tamara and Havoc already were many feet in front of them, climbing through the sign to get to what was left of the roof. He let Call go first, and followed right after.

Then, he looked back.

The chaos-ridden were advancing fast, some of them already climbing onto the sign.

Aaron clenched his fists. There he was, the boy who was supposed to be able to fight the chaos-ridden, running away as those bastards marched at him and his friends; friends who had put their lives in danger to save his.

Rage overcame him, making him see red. They would NOT touch his friends; they wouldn't even get close to them!

He'd end them before they got the chance.

Slowly, he raised his hand, darkness spreading from it; it shot forward, wrapping the chaos-ridden, having them limp and on the ground in a matter of seconds.

Satisfaction flooded him, even with his surroundings getting blurry and a buzz going on inside his head. For a moment, he thought he had heard voices calling for him, but they seemed muffled, coming from too far away.

It didn't matter. He just needed to continue with the task at hand; let the darkness keep on spreading until there wasn't one single chaos-ridden standing.

Suddenly, something collided with his body, knocking him to the ground and keeping him pinned there, but all his mind registered was that the chaos magic had stopped.

"Leave me alone!" He shouted, struggling to break free. He wasn't finished yet; he needed to keep on with the magic. "I need to – I need to –"

"You need to stop!" Someone said. Call? "Aaron, you can't do this without a counterweight. You'll die."

"It doesn't matter." He said, still struggling. He just needed to finish the chaos-ridden.

"Tamara's waiting. We can't leave her. You have to. Come on. You have to." The voice said again.

It sounded like Call, but what was he doing…

What was AARON doing?

Slowly, the awareness came back to him; the haziness in his mind began to dissipate, making him realize that it was Call who had him pinned to the floor and was trying to talk to him.

"Okay." Call said. He seemed relieved at seeing Aaron respond. "Okay, Aaron. Let's go." He said, holding out his hand.

Aaron hesitated for a moment before taking it, the last remains of the haze leaving his mind. Call hauled him to his feet and both went back to climbing the sign, quickly reaching high enough to jump down beside Tamara and Havoc on the roof.

He noticed that Call winced when his feet hit the tiles, which made him think that his leg must have been aching something fierce.

Tamara nodded, relieved at having them with her, but quickly ran for the edge of the roof and leaped onto a dumpster, seeing as the chaos-ridden were still following them.

Call and Aaron went right after her. Call's landing wasn't any good; his feet slammed on the metal lid of the dumpster, making him fall to his knees, though he managed to roll off the edge and stay upright by using the metal side of the dumpster as support.

Aaron landed without problems and quickly went to check on Call, asking him if he was okay. Before he could answer though, there was the sound of clattering metal, and both of them spun to see that Tamara had sent the dumpster rolling away from the buildings, leaving the chaos-ridden stranded on the roof.

After that, both Aaron and Tamara's attention turned to Call. He was sure that the worry in their eyes was evident.

"I — I'm fine." Call said, glancing from one to the other. "I can't believe you came back for me." He added. The color on his face didn't look good.

Aaron couldn't understand why he'd think that; there was just no way they'd leave Call behind. Didn't Call know that?

"Of course we did," He said. "I mean you and Tamara came all this way to get me, didn't you? Why wouldn't we do the same thing for you?"

"You matter, Call." Tamara said.

For some reason, Call didn't look reassured. In fact, he looked like he was about to argue, but changed his mind. Aaron wondered what he was thinking.

"Well, it was pretty amazing — what you did with the sign." Call said, changing the topic. Aaron decided to let it drop, at least for now.

He and Tamara exchanged a glance. Aaron guessed they were thinking the same thing:

 _Yeah…that could've gone better…but hey, it could have gone a lot worse._

Then, Tamara explained what they were really trying to do; adding that what was important was that things had worked out in the end. Call agreed. Aaron mentally agreed.

"Thanks for what you did up there, too," He said, putting his hand on Call's shoulder and patting it in an awkward manner. "I was so angry — if you hadn't stopped me using the chaos magic, I don't know what would have —"

But Tamara interrupted him, commenting on how gross it was that boys had to talk about feelings all the time and reminding them of the very important detail that they were still standing at the side of a building that was filled with chaos-ridden.

Aaron smiled, sheepish; he meant what he said, though. Call had probably stopped him from doing the most stupid thing he had ever done in his life. The way he had felt back then - so out of his mind, not caring about anything except destroying the chaos-ridden; he would probably have died.

He watched as Tamara took the lead, preparing to follow her when, from the corner of his eyes, he saw a figure going limp. Luckily, his arms were faster than his mind, moving quickly and catching the boy before he could finish the thought that _Call passed out!_

"Tamara!" He called, cautiously lowering himself so he could rest Call's head on his lap.

Tamara turned around, startled, and immediately ran back to them. Havoc was beside Aaron, looking at Call and whining softly.

Aaron's mind was going a mile a minute: Why did Call pass out? Was it his leg? Was it hurting too much? Was it exhaustion? Was it an injury? Oh God, what if it was an injury? What had happened to Call while he was alone? Had something or someone attacked him?

"Aaron!"

Tamara's voice snapped him out if his thoughts; she was kneeling down beside the two of them, her hand on Aaron's shoulder. He wondered for how long she had been calling his name.

"You need to keep calm."

"But Call…"

"Needs to be taken to the Magisterium. It's the only thing that can help him now; worrying won't solve a thing." She said.

The words were harsh, but Aaron heard when her voice quivered at the end; she was worried too.

Aaron inhaled and exhaled, then nodded.

"You're right." He looked at Call, hoping more than anything that he'd be okay, and looked back at Tamara. "Let's go. I'll carry him." He said.

Tamara hesitated. "But…your wrists are bleeding, and your ankles must be hurt. Are you sure you'll be able to carry the weight?"

He stood up, slowly, being careful not to drop Call. His ankles were hurting, but not so much that he couldn't bear it. He pulled Call close, carrying him bridal style; he was warm.

"I probably shouldn't carry the weight." He admitted, truthfully. "But I can do it. Besides, it's the only way; he's too heavy for you, Tamara."

Tamara looked at him in silence for a few seconds, as if thinking of a retort, but ended up nodding back. "Right, but we'll go slow. And have breaks so you can rest." She said, gently.

Aaron smiled. "Yeah, we can do that."

She smiled back and got up. Aaron looked down when he felt something press against his leg; it was Havoc, who was standing on his hind-legs, trying to reach Call.

Tamara patted him. "He'll be alright…" She said in a soothing tone. "But we have to take him to the Magisterium, okay?" She asked.

Havoc whined unhappily, but obliged, following them as they began the long walk back.

* * *

A/N: Thank you for reading it!

Reminder for those who might have missed it: I also published this fic on AO3 (username: MidnightHalo27)

I always love to discuss anything Magisterium related! Here's my tumblr: agarotado27dejunho


End file.
